Public policies, food and nutrition security, and sustainable food systems: convergences from the Food Acquisition Program

Abstract Created in 2003 in Brazil, Food Acquisition Program (Programa de Aquisicao de Alimentos [PAA]) connects the strengthening of family farming with actions of food and nutrition security and social assistance. Its originality, innovations, and results attracted the attention of academia and various political and institutional spaces in the country and the world. This chapter aims to explore the reasons for this effervescence by analyzing PAA’s contributions to food and nutritional security and the building of sustainable food systems. Furthermore, it seeks to verify the extent to which international projections have reflected in the national trajectory of the program. The results point to important convergences between public policy, food and nutrition security, and the construction of sustainable food systems. They also demonstrate a trajectory of political, economic, and social strengthening of the PAA by 2012. However, since then several elements are contributing to the dismantling of the Program. Policy and food system choices threaten the continuity of the program and its outcomes.